Hurricane Sandy: Cleanup and Recovery of the Tri-State Area

When Hurricane Sandy hit the Tri-state area, TERS hurricane cleanup and disaster recovery (CAT) expertise helped hundreds of businesses, municipalities and homeowners recover and go back to business. One of the most challenging projects was helping the biggest and most secure archive in the area. (Note: due to security and confidentiality purposes, the company name cannot be posted). The archive complex was severely affected by water, sewage, oil, gasoline, and other contamination.

During the hurricane, over 60,000,000 documents were severely damaged. Our objectives for this hurricane cleanup were to minimize the damage, dry up all affected files, and remove mold, bacteria, TVOCs, SVOCs, minerals and bio contamination. To complete this tremendous task, which included hurricane cleanup, documents cleanup and documents recovery, we mobilized numbers of disaster recovery crews (CAT) from our Tri-state areas.

Our crews worked around the clock and performed the following:

Inventory, labeling, and removing boxes of documents and files

Delivery of all affected documents to the TERS drying facilities

Vacuum freeze-drying and drying all affected documents using sublimation process

Eliminate mold bacteria and bio contamination

Documents cleanup and remediation

Post restoration and decontamination verification surface testing

Digitization and electronic filing of archives

TERS Inc. was chosen for this project based on many years proven experience and successful emergency projects. We managed to complete this one-of-a-kind project using only our in-house crews, equipment and facilities. This is one more example of TERS tremendous capabilities in hurricane cleanup, documents recovery, documents restoration, and disaster recovery (CAT).

Sewage Seeps into West Hartford Home

March 2011 - West Hartford, Conn (WTNH) - Flooded basement reports are coming in from all over the state, but it's even worse for some folks in West Hartford that have had sewage come into their homes.

On Four Mile Road in West Hartford you can find destroyed items like a refrigerator, entertainment center, stereo equipment, a washer and dryer, all ruined by raw sewage that backed up into basements.

It happened in the middle of the night. The sewers and storm drains couldn't keep up with the flood waters, and began ejecting raw sewage up and out.

"Clothes that were in the dryer, the dryer was full of sewer water. Everything is ruined," said Jim Schulz from West Hartford.

When asked how long workers have been clearing sewage out of his home, Schulz answered, "They came up yesterday to help pump it out, and they came in today and took out the carpet and started cutting out sheetrock. They cut the sheet rock off about three feet high, and it was insulated, the whole deal."

This has happened before, but Schulz says three years ago the town ripped up the streets and fixed the back flow problem. At least he thought they did.

"I'm obviously not going to finish the basement again, and I hope insurance covers part of it. Yesterday my furnace was so soaked I had to replace it for $700, and this crew is costing quite a bit to clean, and I don't want to go through this again," Shulz said.

It's not just this home, or the next door neighbor's home, but up to 50 homes in this part of West Hartford. We are not just talking a couple of inches. Some homes had two to three feet of raw sewage in the basement.

Manhattan Criminal Courthouse: Fire Damage

In March of 2010 there was an extensive fire damage in The Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in downtown Manhattan, which contaminated over a million square feet with smoke and soot. TERS was called in for first response measures and a decontamination plan of action. In less than two hours TERS mobilized environmental teams, filtration systems, environmental restoration equipment and air quality monitoring systems. (See page on fire, soot, and smoke damage.)

Our skilled team of emergency restoration specialists labored around the clock to restore normal business operations within a matter of days.

Various environmental technicians were also called to conduct deodorization and indoor-air-quality restoration. TERS’ fast, professional, and thorough response was instrumental in saving untold millions of dollars worth of business interruption claims.

During this project, TERS teams used only GREEN methods and state-of-the-art environmental equipment to avoid any cross contamination and assure high indoor air quality!